Phosphate help

[JCastellano]

I am trying to figure out if there is something that i am doing incorrectly or not doing. I am currently battling a severe hair algea or bryopsis problem. (not sure how to tell the difference)

Here are my parameters and what I am doing. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

System:
90 AGA
5200 gph flow in tank (2 maxijet 1200 sureflow mods and 1 tunze stream)
110 gal sump
40 gal refugium
200 lbs live rock
2" crushed coral substrate
Phosban reactor w/ phosban in it
small bag of carbon in sump
feed tank once daily 2 cubes emerald entree

parameters:
SAL: 1.024
pH: 8.5
Ca:465
Mg:1380
DKH:9.4
PO4:.1
NO2:undetect
NO3:undetect
Amm:undetect

Thanks,
Justin

 

[fliynhi]

try bumping up your mg up to around 1600 or better. I am currently battling the same problem and the closer I get to 1600 the slower it grows back when I pluck it. My mg was extremely low (1100) when I started and I have been bringing it up slowly since the end of april. Just a thought, best of luck to you.

 

[lokikegs]

How many fish and what size are they? Two cubes of emerald entre sure seems like a lot of food.

 

[ironheads]

what construction company do you work for? And what job are you working on?....Thanks Jeff

 

[Tazbader]

Do you have a fish in there that eats hair algae? A kole or yellow or powder... maybe a virgate rabbit fish.... pretty much a necessity IMO, but then again I like to feed heavy. You also didn't mention anything about your skimmer... also a must. I use a skimmer rated for 275g on my 100g system. Also replace your carbon regularly as it will leach organics back into your system. Another thing as I don't know the livestock in your tank is to make sure all that food is getting eaten, and your cleaning your filter socks or sponges alot. It will go away....

 

[brad]

First, be sure your skimmer is well tuned. After a 2 year battle with algae, aptasia and high nitrates, I switched skimmer pumps, and pulled out 5 gallons a day for 2 weeks (not a typo), and surprise, no more algae or aptasia problems. A good skimmer is a must if you stock heavily or have no other export.

Second, I am not a fan of huge water changes. They are uneconomical and usually there is a better solution. But they can be used to solve almost any problem.

Third, I add sugar to my tank, and think it makes a big difference. This is controversial, but Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphate won't get taken up by organisms unless they have enough of all three. No carbon means you will have either too much phosphate or nitrogen (probably both). Too much carbon is better than too much nitrogen, and too much phosphate is the worst. Try this if you want to take a big risk, or want to do a little reading and take a small risk. If you really have that much Phosphate and no nitrogen, you may be nitrogen limited. I haven't heard much about this (I would guess a test kit issue is more likely), but I would think feeding the fish enough would eventually take care of the problem.

4) Having macroalgea growing somewhere will cut down on algae growth elsewhere.

5) Either the Phosban reactor and carbon in sump could be leaching phosphate.

6) You are using RO water, right?

 

[Payton Bear34]

whoops

 

[JCastellano]

Yes I use ro/di water only. I have also recently started adding vodka to my system to up carbon. As for my skimmer i have a Euro reef RS 180. I only pull out about 2 - 3 cups a day if that. How do i know if my skimmer is tuned in correctly? I also do have a little bit of cheato in my refugium but it doesnt seem to really be growing. Not sure why.
As for fish:
1 blue green chromis
1 diamond goby
1 yellow tang
1 emperor snapper
1 dog face puffer
1 mandarin goby
1 lawn mower blenny
1 harlequin tusk fish
1 occellaris clown
I know the puffer and snapper get really big. I plan to upgrade to a 300 gal before long. As for now they are just juveniles.

 

[JCastellano]

By the way thanks for all the help.

 

[JCastellano]

Ironheads, I work for A.S. Castellano Construction Inc. I am working on multiple projects. Why do you ask?

 

[JCastellano]

oh yeah and for lighting I run a nova extreme t5 fixture 8 x 54w
my lighting schedule is
actinics on 10 am
sun lamps on 1130 am
sunlamps off 730 pm
actinics off 9 pm